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ARC SP-6 Warmup time

I just bought an Audio Research SP-6 preamp. It takes about ten minutes after powering on for the power lamp to stop blinking and the unit to start passing signals. Other than that it sounds perfect on all inputs. Is this at all normal? Does it indicate something is about to fail? Ten minutes to warm up is more than annoying.
richardp01
czbbcl's avatar
czbbcl
1,752 posts
 
Not familiar with that unit but 10 minutes does seem excessive. My cj premier 16 took less than a minute or so. Currently my Herron phono stage goes through the same start up sequence and takes less than a minute as well.

Chuck
sidssp
1,077 posts
 
Which version of SP-6 do you have? The power LED on the SP-6 and SP-6A don't blink.

Starting from SP-6B ARC introduced a timer circuitry which auto mutes output on power on. If yours is AP-6B and later, I think that is what you are seeing. It is normal. Nothing to worry about.

All the SP-6's sound great. I like the 6A the best.
theduke
372 posts
 
It is not normal. I once had an SP-6C. The mute clicked off in about 2m.15s. Have it checked out!
rcprince
3,073 posts
 
Why not call ARC? They were always very helpful when I would call them about the ARC amps and preamps I owned, and they have supported their older products admirably.
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